Founder Log #11 – Back in the Game After Burnout

- 3 minutes read - 482 words

🧠 Weekly Overview

Beginning of the week was hectic. It was the culmination of burnout, stress, and sleep deprivation. I had two days with no real progress. But I used that pause to reflect and recover. By the end of the week, I was back on track and productive again.

I didn’t hit all the goals I set. But I moved forward. And honestly, that’s what matters. I always estimate too optimistically. But so what? Menuvivo is still a side project done in morning hours. These things take time. I’m not giving up.

Most important win? I didn’t quit. I considered it, but didn’t. And now I know I can survive even the rough patches and keep building. That’s the real superpower.

🗓 Daily Execution Summary

Monday – Jun 2

  • Burnout culmination. No energy to make progress. Reflected, rested, and re-centered.

Tuesday – Jun 3

  • Still mentally drained. No significant progress.

Wednesday – Jun 4

  • Read and reviewed pipeline logic. Started rebuilding motivation.
  • Reconnected with the why behind the project and accepted this is a long game.

Thursday – Jun 5

  • Improved prompts to return more unified of tags, units, tools.
  • Manual testing and bug-finding session.
  • Pipeline behavior improved but still not 100% reliable. Bugs added to fix list.

Friday – Jun 6

  • Short 30-minute session.
  • Did manual testing and wrote first test for MissingDbItemsCollector.
  • Got into deep focus quickly despite time pressure.

Saturday – Jun 7

  • Woke at 1:15 AM and worked from 2:00 to 6:30.
  • Built normalization logic + test suite for tags, tools, units.
  • Created AI agent “Tessa” to define test scenarios.
  • Major step forward in ingestion pipeline.

Sunday – Jun 8

  • Fully rested, productive session.
  • Created Step 3: merging manually reviewed data into production.
  • Adopted TDD with AI support (Tessa for test specs, Aider for code).
  • Bugs from manual tests identified; tests to be added next.

🏆 Wins of the Week

  • Got back into the game after breakdown.
  • Finished normalization logic for ingredients, tags, tools, and units.
  • Created Tessa, the AI agent for writing test scenarios.
  • Refactored core pipeline step to prepare for robust, maintainable flow.
  • Used AI-driven TDD to improve code quality and confidence.

✍️ Lessons & Reflections

  • Estimates are bullshit when you’re building mornings before a 9–5.
  • Progress isn’t linear. Some weeks will feel like nothing moves—but you’re still moving.
  • Good sleep beats hustle. Clear head = better work.
  • TDD + AI agents (Tessa + Aider) is now my preferred workflow.
  • Just showing up and staying in the game matters more than how much you ship.
  • Refactoring and writing tests may feel like a detour, but they’re the fastest way forward when building something long-term.

🎯 Plan for the next week

  • Finish logic to integrate manually reviewed data into production
  • Write tests for bugs found during manual testing
  • Translate recipes to Polish and English
  • Add recipe image generation logic
  • Ingest 20+ recipes and release to production